A mail insertion system or a “mailpiece inserter” is commonly employed for producing mailpieces intended for mass mail communications. Such mailpiece inserters are typically used by organizations such as banks, insurance companies and utility companies for producing a large volume of specific mail communications where the contents of each mailpiece are directed to a particular addressee. Also, other organizations, such as direct mailers, use mailpiece inserters for producing mass mailings where the contents of each mailpiece are substantially identical with respect to each addressee.
In many respects, a typical inserter system resembles a manufacturing assembly line. Sheets and other raw materials (i.e., a web of paper stock, enclosures, and envelopes) enter the inserter system as inputs. Various modules or workstations in the inserter system work cooperatively to process the sheets until a finished mail piece is produced. Typically, inserter systems prepare mail pieces by arranging preprinted sheets of material into a collation, i.e., the content material of the mail piece, on a transport deck. The collation of preprinted sheets may continue to a chassis module where additional sheets or inserts may be added based upon predefined criteria, e.g., an insert being sent to addressees in a particular geographic region. Subsequently, the collation may be folded and placed into envelopes. Once filled, the envelopes are closed, sealed, weighed, and sorted. A postage meter may then be used to apply postage indicia based upon the weight and/or size of the mail piece.
The capacity, configuration and features of each inserter system depend upon the needs of each customer and/or installation. Until recently, mailpiece inserters were limited to two basic configurations, i.e., low-volume inserters capable of producing between about 5K-10K mailpieces monthly, and high-volume inserters capable of producing in excess of 100K mailpieces daily. To contrast the differences in greater detail, low volume inserters may occupy the space of a conventional office copier and generally will cost less than about twenty-thousand dollars ($20,000). High-volume inserters may extent over 100 feet in length and cost in excess of five million dollars ($5,000,000). Only recently have manufacturers introduced models having an intermediate capacity, i.e., producing between 50K-100K mailpieces monthly. An exemplary model fulfilling these specifications is the Sebring Model inserter produced by Pitney Bowes Inc., located in Stamford, Conn., USA.
While system capacity significantly impacts productivity, it should also be appreciated that capacity also influences other processes of the mailpiece inserter, i.e., impacts certain practical aspects of system operation. For example, a typical inserter may exhibit a rejection rate of about five percent (5%) of the total mailpiece volume. That is, five percent (5%) of the total number of mailpieces may necessitate re-printing due to damage incurred by paper jams, mishandled paper, missing or unidentified sheet material, inaccurate fold lines, improper sealing, etc. In low capacity machines, the percentage of mailpieces requiring re-print may equal a small number, e.g., 10 mailpieces daily, which can readily be re-printed without the need to re-run an entire print job. Moreover, if the job involved the printing of payroll checks, it will be appreciated that, for security reasons/theft avoidance, re-printing of checks must be minimized and closely monitored. As such, it is common for low capacity machines to have limited re-print capability, e.g., simply identifying those documents which were improperly completed/printed. Once the misprinted checks have been identified, separate individual checks may be printed and mailed, i.e., often by a department charged with such activities such as a payroll or accounting department.
High capacity inserters, on the other hand, yield a much higher number of reject mailpieces requiring reprint. In addition to document identification (which can be used to identify both completed and misprinted documents/mailpieces), these systems are oftentimes equipped with optical scanning or recording devices for storing a digitized picture of each document handled by the inserter. That is, as documents pass from an initial feed station to subsequent handling stations, a picture of the document may be captured and stored. Thereafter, documents are optically tracked via photocells disposed along the feed path of the inserter for the purpose of recording the status of the document, i.e., whether the document successfully passed to completion or failed in-process.
Due to the potentially large number of incomplete documents, such inserters are typically operated by means of intelligent software. The operating software may be capable of preparing a print job comprising a list/compilation of documents which have been identified as candidates for reprint. The list/compilation may be generated automatically by the inserter's system software and/or manually at the request of an operator. Regarding the latter, an operator may visually inspect mailpieces for certain aesthetic deficiencies, e.g., such as a blurred/partially legible mailing address, which, in the opinion of the operator, does not pass certain quality standards and, as such, is unsuitable for mailing.
While low capacity inserters typically have limited reprint features, high capacity machines, which include integral processing capability, can readily retrieve document identification numbers for re-printing defective documents. Alternatively, high capacity mailpiece inserters can use the digitized pictures of the processed documents, prepare a print job of the defective documents and automatically/manually reprint the documents. It will be appreciated that this reprint capability is particularly valuable for high volume inserters which produce a proportionately large quantity of defective documents.
While high volume inserters are capable of handling and reprinting a large quantity of defective documents, the data used to reproduce the documents are merely digitized photos incapable of being changed or manipulated. For example, if the original error or deficiency arose from the document content “as printed”, then the defect is, once again, passed along to the reprint job. Furthermore, since reprint jobs are typically formatted in accordance with a predetermined numeric sequence, the operator must reprint all of the defective mailpieces which each run. That is, the operator is not provided the ability to selectively reprint defective documents.
A need, therefore, exists for an inserter having the capability to selectively reprint large quantities of the original print job, i.e., whether or not the requirement for reprinting such documents was due to a document error or deficiency, and the ability to manipulate the document should the error or deficiency be contained within the original printed image thereof.